American Originals is a poor, dry shadow of The American Religion written by Harold Bloom several years ago. It has none of the thrill of following and intimately disecting the american direction in religious ontology. It has an overall air of Ho-Hum. A feeling of "I wrote this book because I could." Not that its facts are terribly inaccurate but the point is that if I wanted a dictionary of religious history I would have bought one.

This is a truly outstanding work in American religious history. Conkin delves deep into the historical details surrounding these groups, yet never loses focus of the larger picture and the major themes that make each group distinctive. His chapter on Mormonism is particularly good; no other work sorts out the complicated events and themes of the Latter-day Saints with as much clarity and concision.

Believers should note this is a scholarly work, and deals with questions those inside the faith, in their modes of worship, do not consider. Conkin is very fair with these groups; those unhappy with this work should compare it to the hatchet jobs many professors of religion, or sectarian believers, do to those of other faiths.

I've been waiting for a book like this for a really long time. The book is fact filled, easy to read (for those new to religious concepts & sects) and informative. The author breaks the sects up so that we can better understand the denominations as a whole. The section on Apocalptic Christianity is one of the best. Many members of the sects discussed might be offended as it does point out inaccuracies or missteps within the sect. A great read!!

Poorly written, stomach-churning potboiler, masquerading as science fiction. The writers of the B7 series would have been appalled, as were many of the faithful fans at this effort. The science is laughably inaccurate, the plot is pure 30's pulp and the characters are disgusting and bear little resemblence to how they appeared in the actual BLAKES 7 TV series. I've read far better fan fiction in this series universe.

Mr Darrow has captured the essence that creates Avon. Power, adventure, and love all twist together to produce the background of the man we grew to admire. This book maps out the road that Avon follows and brings full circle many questions left unanswered in the series. Thank you for your achievement.

Paul has managed to develop a complex character in Avon, one of the reasons why Blakes 7 was such a huge hit, despite its cheap budget. The book shows how the author created Avon, from a small boy to the moment he appears in episode 2.

As Science fiction goes, and I've read a great deal, this book is an essential read.

I am a huge Batman fan, and more specifically, a huge fan of Batman's immortal nemesis, Ra's Al Ghul. After trying to hunt down this volume of collected tales for over a year, when I finally picked it up, I felt very disappointed. While the collected stories provide an interesting look into Batman's second-greatest foe (next to the Joker), their presentation leaves much to be desired.

More specifically, I never felt like I read any one, complete story. I have to think it was the way comic books were written at the time, and not that pages were edited out, but some stories begin with little to no exposition, or end way too quickly. At one point, Talia, beautiful daughter of Ra's, kisses Batman. Without dialogue or expository balloons, the story abruptly ends, and the next page sees a mysterious box being brought into Wayne manor. Another story has Batman automatically chasing Ra's from snow-covered mountains to the desert, with little explanation of his travels in between. In short, there's very little sense of closure and continuity, and it becomes irritating. On top of that, the pages of each story vary in length. This is also irritating because today's comic books have a set number of pages, and in the end I felt like I didn't read my money's worth of stories.

That said, there are some highlights for Ra's and Batman fans. Ra's was designed at a time when the campy approach was being phased out and the darker, brooding Batman was being brought in. What we have here is a mix, a Batman who sometimes scares his enemies in one frame and gives quirky, "Stan Lee" asides in the next. Definitely an interesting combination. The artwork is also pretty good, with more vibrant colors than some collected volumes I have of later comics. Lastly, for fans who have watched all the Ra's Al Ghul episodes of the animated series, they get to see where the original stories for "Veritgo" and "The Demon's Quest" come from. Ra's Al Ghul's duel with Batman in the desert, the kidnapping of Robin, Batman and Talia's final kiss - it's all here. Unfortunately, the animated series really did a much better job reinterpreting the material, and even though the panels are fun to see, they come off as a disappointment.

Tales of the Demon isn't a very good collected volume. There are better, cheaper volumes avaliable, and even fans of Ra's Al Ghul will probably want to skip this one.

Batman Tales of the Demon had a lot of promise. Judging by other Ras Al Ghul stories I've read, I thought that it would be a classic. Since it was written by the great Dennis O'Neil, and featured the most intresting Bat-villian ever how could it go wrong? I'll tell you...it was a buzz kill. Although the stories in this volume were written in the 70's, the material lacks considerly compared to the other stories being written at this time by O'neil, which can be found in 'The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told vol.1' ALso the characterization of Batman is still somewhat of a holdover from 60's camp, as we see the Dark Knight knocked out by...Molly the Ski-champ, who thinks Batman is assualting Talia(Ra's daughter).
This collection is intresting for the archival quality alone, and is not recomended as a definitive look at Ras AL Ghul. Try 'Batman: Son of the Demon' or the animated episode by O'neil 'The Demon's Quest'. This should be taken in the context as a historical look at batman in the 70's, and not as a serious offering to his present day mythos.

I thought that this was a great story, we see Ra's Al Ghul desperately trying to recruit the Dark Knight to be his successor, and he considers Batman the only one worthy enough in all the world. A very tempting offer, as it included his very attractive daughter to be his bride, so it's clear that Batman must remember to keep his focus and not let his personal feelings get in the way of his mission.

Also in the TPB, we see Batman square off against The Bronze Tiger, who proves to be Batman's match in martial arts combat. This just solidifies that Batman is a top 5 martial artist, because The Bronze Tiger was trained by Richard Dragon, who is supposedly was the greatest martial artist in the DCU. Dragon also trained Lady Shiva, who quite easily can beat Nightwing in open combat (Nightwing isn't exactly a slouch, either!).

Schlocky sequel...author admittedly penned this just to satisfy Filmmaker's lust for a movie version (which was an ultimate bomb, too). Not only is it a follow up to the film THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (NOT to his excellent original book), but it's a bad one! Contrived silliness from such a talented writer...might have some appeal for diehard fans of the original movie.

Producer/Director Irwin Allen, eager to score a hit after flopping with the embarrassing failure of The Swarm, evidently backed Paul Gallico into a corner and sweet talked the author into penning a sequel to The Poseidon Adventure that would hopefully stimulate interest in financing another Poseidon Adventure feature film. Gallico, either making up the concept himself or working from ideas sculpted by Allen's screenwriters, cooked up a moderately entertaining sequel to the movie itself, rather than his novel, which ended quite differently. It's better written than one would expect for something with such crass origins, and, in a humorous touch, Gallico dedicated the novel to Mr. Allen. Recommended to Poseidon Adventure buffs only.

this is great it is much better than the movie beyond the poseidon adventure

It's unclear why two people who clearly loathe James Bond would bother to write a book about the legendary spy. My only guess is that this book was commissioned by Vin Diesel to kill off James Bond and clear the way for more movies in the XXX series, the gen-X James Bond wannabe. Andy Lane and Paul Simpson have almost nothing kind to say about any of the films. For example, the description of every film's credit sequence is in a section called "cringe-worthy title sequence." This is strange considering that the millions of Bond fans around the world love the title sequences, one of the most sacred components of the 007 formula. (Yet the authors praised the witless title sequence from the dull Never Say Never Again, which seemed straight from a television film). Another section for each film is entitled "Mistakes Can Be Fatal," in which the authors try to be clever and witty by exposing errors, but instead only demonstrate they don't have a clue about logic and continuity. For example, they state that in GoldenEye it's illogical for a dam to be in the mountains (?!). Well, I live in the mountains, and there's a dam nearby. Worse, the book provides little behind-the-scenes information; most information about the films can be gleaned from imdb.com or a DVD cover, or just watching the movie. I feel sorry for anyone who reads this book. I pity even more the authors, who clearly wasted a lot of their time, which would have perhaps been better spent playing bocce ball or pitching a Remo Williams sequel.

Unfortunately I can not recommend this book. I used to welcome books about James Bond because they were far and few to be found in the world of publishing. This book falls into the plethora of recent publications about Ian Fleming's creation. Being part of that trend this book carries the stigma of glaring inaccuracies when it tackles Ian Fleming's written word. Many authors do not do their homework and the research into the actual words that Fleming put to paper. Fleming's sublime knowledge into the world of espionage, esoteric life styles and curiosity pieces is something analogous to the riddle of the Sphinx because in many instances the reader either misunderstands Fleming's prose or the reader just glosses over his words totally oblivious to the intent Fleming implied. Hell's belle's.

What can I say? This is one of the best books ever written about James Bond. It tackles every single medium Bond has appeared in, from Ian Flemming's novels to the unwatchable series James Bond Jr. There's plenty of behind the scenes info and some best (No, I expect you to die) and worst (I'll buy you a delecatessen in stainless steel) lines. There's even a comprehensive list of flubs for each book and film. Overall, a must-buy for anyone who loves Bond.

This book has its high points. The exercises are to the point and easy to understand, but yet somewhat hard to do. However, the text has the problem many accounting books I have seen have, that is the fact it contains too many in-text examples and not enough to the point study points for someone who just needs to know the principals for quick and easy studying. If a course you are in requires this book you best go looking for an additional study manual for study help.

I am taking a course which uses this book. The book is written well but there is no answer key in the book for the problems. There is no way to get feedback on the exercises. Even the practice question in the chapters do not have answers.

It's ok for a course. Which is what I did. Chapters 1-13 was Accounting 101 and chapters 14-27 was Accounting 102 for me.

I'm not wild about how it's written, organized, and method of teaching. Sometimes the material is too vague, confusing, and not true to real life accounting practices.

I'd say if you're being introduced into accounting, this book may be a bit too advanced for you. You should take an Accounting 100 course if offered. This book does not cover the bare basics, such as indepth journal entries, posting to ledgers, dealing with various accounts, etc. etc..

Also, I was lucky to have the answers supplied to me from the instructor when taking this course. If you don't, the problems are nearly impossible. The book does not explain enough to just do them off what you learned.
I'd say overall this book has too much theory and not enough application.

I used Weygandt for Accounting 100, and have been studying from various books of his for 2 years now. It's good material, but not super material. But, what else is out there, you know?

Reviewer: Roger Pearse from Ipswich, Suffolk United Kingdom
In the 19th century there was a flood of genuine discoveries of ancient manuscripts containing hitherto unknown works from antiquity. This seems to have stimulated the production of numbers of bogus documents, targetted at various communities. The common motive was to get money: the intended victims of the hoaxes could be determined by the language used.
Most of these documents have vanished into history, with their target groups - 'Jesus in Tibet' enthusiasts and the like. The Archko volume is one that has not. It was first published in 1884 under the title "The Archaeological and the Historical Writings of the Sanhedrin and Talmuds of the Jews..." and repackaged, reedited and revised as "The Archko Volume" (2nd Edition) during the life of W.D.Mahan, its author (I have both a 1884 and a 1905 edition - Mahan died in 1906).

After some difficulty I procured a first edition. One document -'Eli and the Story of the Magi' has been omitted altogether from subsequent editions, without any mention of why. There is, of course, a good reason for this. Apparently the text is copied verbatim from the novel "Ben Hur" (publ. 1880). The rest of the material has been rearranged, although there is no mention of this in the preface. All copies with the title 'Archko volume' are versions of the second edition - the first does not have the preface in the same place.

I investigated the 'translators' McIntosh and Twyman, and found that they are not listed as the authors of any other volume in the US Library of Congress catalogue. There is no evidence that they ever existed.

The shelfmark given for the material by "Valleus Paterculus", as a Vatican Library shelfmark, is wrong, as this institution classifies its manuscripts by collection, not by author. Since I am interested in other Vatican MSS, I can vouch for this myself. In fact no manuscripts of any work by Velleius Paterculus exist anywhere in the world, as the sole MS of his real history was lost during the 17th century. Since he died in AD30, it naturally does not mention Christ.

A general discussion of some of these hoaxes is available:GOODSPEED, Edgar J., Strange New Gospels, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1931), v+110pp. (There is a copy on the internet). It isn't very scholarly, and some of the judgements seem biased - New Testament Scholars enjoy a low reputation among Christians, and with good reason - but I have checked a number of the facts given and they seem to be correct. The rest must be left to the judgement of the reader.

The purpose of the hoax is plain - to make money from Christians living in rural areas of the US. As far as I know, it has not circulated elsewhere. It certainly was not targetted at unbelievers, or scholars, or even persons living outside the US, none of whom were at all likely to be taken in.

So what should Christians think? I was reminded of some wise words by the ancient Christian writer, Tertullian: "Manifold are the ways in which the devil has sought to undermine the truth. He is now trying to crush it, by pretending to defend it" (Adversus Praxean 1, 1). Spiritually this is a snare - inviting Christians to put their trust in something false, in the hope of convincing them, when the fraud is revealed, that the bible too is false. Commercially it is circulated for money, since its fraudulent nature has been known for over a century. If something seems too good to be true - it is. So is this.

This work is considered a forgery. See APOCRYPHAL NEW TESTAMENT by M.R. James and STRANGE NEW GOSPELS by E.J. Goodpseed.

Some people claim the Archko Volume to be a forgery. My opinion is why would it be? Nothing in it either detracts or adds to christianity. In fact--it amplifies the humanity & godhead of Jesus at the same time. In the Archko Volume there is a written investigative report saying the night Jesus was born there was a loud ruckus of angels declaring the saviour accompanied by light shows and singing in the skies--so much so all Bethlehem was aware. So, why would anyone think the Sanhedrim would not send an investigator (Jonathan) to look into these. This awesome birth of Jesus thus documented, why would anyone think the same Sanhedrim wouldn't send an investigator to interview Mary & Joseph when Jesus was 26? I'd of been very suspect if they didn't. Perhaps those that think this is a forgery do not like the fact that the Senhedrim's agent Gamaliel reported Joseph is selfish, tall and ugly; or that Mary is fair to see and seems to be a naturally good woman. Perhaps some people think this is a forgery because Pilate appears in extreme awe of Jesus, almost a believer, in his reports to Rome. Or, that what Caiaphas wrote after and about the resurrection may have some wondering if he too resigned and later died a Christian. Can I or anyone say 100% that these are real? No - but only for the same reasons I cannot say that any copy of our Declaration of Independence in existence is real. Do I believe they are real? Yes!

This book has a very limited scope and doesn't provide the whole picture on assessment centers. I bought this book together with "Assessment Centers in Human Resource Management" by George C. Thornton, and found the latter to be MUCH MUCH MORE comprehensive, unbiased, practical and informative.

Quite a disappointment, a thin book in number of pages and contentwise, with a BIG, BIG price! Seems to be written to sell authors' consultant services rather than to share expertise.

I'd like to know the author's email address. Thanks for sending it to me

This book is a very quick read, and touches on the most general concepts of digital recording. It packs a lot of information for such a tiny volume (it's only slightly bigger than your wallet), but unfortunately this doesn't leave room for much detail. At best, this book would make a handy quick-reference to keep in your back pocket during recording sessions. But as others here have noted, this is not a book to recommend for newbies who really want to get their feet wet in the fast-moving world of digital recording.

Hey paulfer, what book would you recommend for a complete newbie that wanted to get started with multi-track recording?

Basic Digital Recording is essentially useful. I learned things I didn't know before, and it helped me solve a problem I was having, as well as another I hadn't recognized yet! It's important for me to establish this book's utility right from the start, because most of this review is going to focus on its shortcomings, the reasons for my having given it only a three-star rating. There are two general weaknesses: there are some gaps, and it's not graded. First, the gaps. The biggest omission occurs in the chapter on music software - there's lots about midi, but nary a mention of programs like Cakewalk, Cubase, Vegas, Cool Edit, etc - the software that anyone *not* using midi needs to know about. A beginner would get badly misled by this. When it comes to plug-ins, it talks about VST, but neglects to mention Direct-X, which are hugely useful and popular. Also, the book suffers from a lack of an index, and although there's a glossary, it is sometimes insufficient, not covering technical terms used in the book. Finally there's a less-than-useful British bias to it: it mentions sospubs.co, for instance, but none of the excellent US-based homerecording and professional recording websites. What's the internet for, if not easy access to international sites? As for it not being graded: it's not a course that takes you from zero knowledge to putting together your first demo in 100 graded steps and stages, making it a bit difficult to learn from sometimes. The first chapter, for instance, is very offputting, defining digital audio terms and equipment. If what you were trying to do was get a digital project studio started, you'd still be wondering where to start when you were on page 40 - it probably would have done better to start with the second chapter which covers different recording systems. And despite going to great lengths to define concepts and equipment, the book assumes some prior knowledge of audio recording. Sometimes it reminds me a bit of the all-too-common equipment manual which seems incomprehensible until you finally learn how to use the gear. I'm going to stop at this point, because I don't want to trash the book - that's why I gave it three stars, after all. It's useful, and I learned things from it, so I should sound more grateful perhaps. But I can't help thinking that as the 'basic' digital recording book which it claims to be, it could have been more user-friendly, especially with the beginner in mind.

This review is for a book by Strathern published in Canada under the title
"Dr. Strangelove's Game: A Brief History of Economic Genius".

I found this book a major disappointment. It seems to me that the author is
clearly outside his field of expertise, the result being a book riddled
with errors. For instance, in his exposition of Ricardo's theory of
comparative advantage, the example has no comparative advantage. If he had
bothered to read a chapter of an introductory international economics book,
he would have found a clear illustration, Similarly, his description of
Edgeworth's contract curve is muddled and wrong with one consumer gaining
utility at the expense of the other. Indeed, it seems that the author spent
so little time writing the book that he does not even get his arithmetic
right -- his own numbers indicating the American domestic market was 167
percent larger than the British in 1910, not 250 percent larger as claimed.

To his merit, he does say something about nearly every major figure in
economics up to Friedman -- I would probably have included Samuelson as
well -- and other figures as well, e.g., Luca Pacioli, the father of
accounting. And his prose is quite readable, although I found his tendency
towards hyperbole annoying.

On the whole, if you are interested in biographical sketches of leading
economic thinkers in history and are not concerned about an explanation of
their ideas, you may find this book interesting. But I would look
elsewhere.

I bought this book hoping it might shed some insights into the thoughts and times of the world's greatest economists and I got what I hoped for. In particular I was hoping to see if the author did a good job in relating economics to other areas such as politics, science, sociology, history philosophy and mathematics and the book fulfilled my desire. The book was well written, in terms of prose, making it an easy book to read economics books, especially for non-economists.

If I had anything to gripe it would be the EXTREMELY poor editing. Throughout the book I found words that had mistakenly been split up by a spac e mark, such as what I have included in this review. One or two can be forgiven but the twenty or so I seem to have come across is truly shameful for a book at approximately $20 or more. As a result of this and the poor examples provided I rate the book a 3 star book

This book, like The Worldly Philosophers and New Ideas from Dead Economists, is designed to illustrate the thoughts and history of the world's greatest economic thinkers. Economists. This book is ideal for those seeking to learn about some of the contributions of the world's greatest economists as well as those who are history buffs and want to learn more about the times / overlap of the world's greatest minds in other areas such as philosophy, science, etc as many of these individuals had an impact on economists of their times.

Economists highlighted in the book, which goes in chronological order from past to recent, include Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Robert Malthus, George Marshall, Thorton Veblen, Joseph Schumpeter, John von Neumann, John Nash and Milton Friedman.

Some historic events mentioned in the book, since they affected the economists' thoughts, are Holland's 17th-century bout of tulipmania, Britain's notorious South Sea Bubble, The French Revolution, the Great Depression, and the rebuilding and retribution strategies following the two world wars.

Most of my reviews are in business / economics and I encourage people to read them. If you are interested in another excellent economics book I would start with The Worldly Philosophers (which I would buy before this book) and then read Hernando DeSoto's Mystery of Capital. A great general business book is by the management guru Peter Drucker entitled "The Essential Drucker". Just so you know, he didn't pick the title but his work is excellent and highly applicable for managers.

One final note, The Mystery Of Capital is a highly regarded, easy to read book on economic development that is VERY popular in the offices of dignitaries throughout the world, including Paul O'Neill (Secretary of State for the U.S). During a recent CNBC documentary on Mr. O'Neill the secretary met Mr. DeSoto to get some insights before his trip to Africa where he will focus on ways to improve economic development in 3rd world nations.

A Brief History Of Economic Genius by Paul Strathern (Lecturer in Mathematics and Philosophy, Kingston University, London) is an engaging and highly accessible look at the most eccentric and gifted economists including Johann Becher (1635-1682); John Law (1671-1729); Adam Smith (1723-1790); Robert Malthus (1766-1833); Karl Marx (1818-1883); Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929); and John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946). These notable and influential figures, along with their triumphs and failings, and the evolution of the science of economics, are all intelligibly considered in this fascinating presentation that is recommended for academia, as well as the non-specialist general reader.